DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 420 396 PS 026 556

AUTHOR Volk, DinahTITLE The Teaching and the Enjoyment and Being Together...:

Sibling Teaching in the Family of a Puerto RicanKindergartner.

PUB DATE 1998-04-00NOTE 24p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American

Educational Research Association (San Diego, CA, April13-17, 1998).

PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) -- Speeches/Meeting Papers (150)EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Bilingual Education; Bilingual Students; Bilingual Teachers;

*Cultural Background; *Family Involvement; Family Role;*Family School Relationship; Family (Sociological Unit);Hispanic Americans; Kindergarten; *Kindergarten Children;Parent School Relationship; Primary Education; *PuertoRicans; *Siblings; Spanish Speaking

ABSTRACTBased on direct observations of the family, this paper

analyzes the teaching strategies used by a Puerto Rican kindergartner's oldersiblings and extended family members to teach school-related knowledge andskills. As the family's instruction was conducted in Spanish only, theseteaching strategies are analyzed in relation to those used by the boy'sbilingual kindergarten teacher. One goal of this analysis is to provide earlychildhood teachers with insight into the teaching and learning that occur inchildren's homes and into the ways these processes are different from and thesame as those that occur in their classrooms. The analysis is based on theassumption that knowledge of young children's home learning experiences iscrucial for the construction of productive school learning experiences andfor the identification of resources within the home to support schoollearning. The strategies analyzed include: (1) assessing/evaluating; (2)

prompting; (3) informing; (4) teasing; (5) confirming; (6) scaffolding; (7)

illustrating; and (8) requesting clarification. A chart of the teachingstrategies used by siblings during teaching/learning interaction is included.Contains 33 references. (JPB)

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"The teaching and the enjoyment and being together...":

Sibling Teaching in the Family of a Puerto Rican Kindergartner

Dinah VolkEarly Childhood Program, RT 1328

College of Education, Cleveland State University

Euclid at E. 24th St.Cleveland, OH 44115

(216) 523-7101d.volk@popmail.csuohio.edu

PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE ANDDISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS

BEEN GRANTED BY

DAY\ 0.a_\_ILA

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)

1

Paper presented at the Annual- Meeting oftheAmerican Educational Research_

Association, San Diego, CA, April, 1998.

2

Sibling Teaching 2

At home, Nelson Maldonado', his parents, older sister, Yvette, two olderbrothers, and brother's wife, Zulma, sit around the kitchen table. Nelson, aSpanish dominant, Puerto Rican five-year-old, is writing numbers and theothers are talking. Zulma has been teasing him, trying to get him to displayhis knowledge by saying his address. When he refuses to respond, she asks moredirectly, sounding like a teacher in the first turn of the excerpt below asshe uses questions to assess his knowledge. Then Zulma and Yvette worktogether, providing information and asking more teacher-like questions. Theydo not evaluate Nelson's responses. Nelson plays an active role, asking them aquestion about what he wants to learn. (Slashes indicate overlapping speech.

Zulma: aual es el numero? 4Cual es el numero de aqui? [What's thenumber? What's the number here?]

Nelson: (ignores her, writes P) Despues de esta Zcual viene? A?[After this one which one comes? The A?]

Yvette: IQue to vas a escribir alli? [What are you going to writethere ?]

Nelson: Papa. [Daddy.]Yvette: A.

Nelson: (writes)Zulma: Mjum. //i.Despues?// [Mhum. Next?]Yvette: //P.// Pero la chiquita. A. [P. But the little one. A.]Nelson: (writes)Yvette: Y mas nada. [And nothing else.]Zulma: ZQue dice alli? [What does it say there?]Nelson: Papa. [Daddy.]Zulma: (turns to father to talk)

My purpose in this paper is to describe the teaching strategies used byNelson's older siblings and members of his extended family to teach himschool-related knowledge and skills as they do in the above excerpt. Asecondary purpose is to analyze the strategies in relation to those used byNelson's bilingual kindergarten teacher. This work is part of a broader study(Volk, 1997) I conducted in which I explored continuities and discontinuitiesbetween language use in teacher-child and parent-child interactions in theclassroom and homes of Nelson and Monica, another kindergartner.

One goal of this work is to provide early childhood teachers with insightinto the teaching and learning that occur in children's homes and into theways these processes are different from and the same as those that occur intheir classrooms. This work is based on the assumption that knowledge of youngchildren's home learning experiences is crucial for the construction ofproductive school learning experiences and for the identification of resourceswithin the home to supiiort srhodl learning. With this knowledge, teachers canbuild on families' strengths and expand their own teaching repertoires. Withsome families, they will come to see that family involvement that includessiblings and other family members--rather than merely parent involvement--is aviable source of support for children's learning. They may come to appreciatethe skill with which these family members teach and the variety of strategiesthat they use to teach school-related knowledge and skills at home.

Knowledge of home learning experiences is `especially relevant to earlychildhood teachers today as they face the challenge of working with familiesfrom varied backgrounds. Though cross-cultural knowledge is stressed in recent

Sibling Teaching 3

formulations of developmentally appropriate practice (Bredekamp & Copple,1997), there are few resources available to help teachers learn about Latinochildren, in general, and about Puerto Rican children, specifically.

This work provides a window into teaching and learning in the Maldonadofamily. It is about just one Puerto Rican family that appears to be similar tomany in a city where the majority of Latino children live in poor families andwhere most Latino adults have less than a. high school education. It focuses onsome of the Maldonados' resources as a family. If care is taken whengeneralizing from this description, this work may help teachers learn aboutother Latino families as well as families from other cultures.

Insights from the Previous Study

The broader study (Volk, 1997) of Nelson and Monica revealed continuitiesand discontinuities in adult teaching styles between the home and schoolsettings. Mrs. Martin, the teacher, is Puerto Rican and is fluent in Spanishand English. In interviews, she explained that she believed the children inher class could be successful in school and that it was important for them tomaintain their first language as she introduced English. To achieve thesegoals, she created a comfortable but challenging atmosphere and organizedconcrete learning experiences to help children develop both languages.

Mrs. Martin described Latino children as dependent on their parents andpassive. She attributed these charactersitics to many Latino parents' tendencyto keep their children safely indoors and the belief that it is the teacher'sjob to help their children academically. Though she was trained to use achild-centered approach, Mrs. Martin argued that she needed a more structured,teacher-centered approach because of the children's lack of experiences andapparent inability to participate actively and independently. She noted that,as a Puerto Rican, she was trying to be less authoritarian.

Mrs. Martin controlled lessons with her use of the recitation script, ascript characteristic of many teachers (Volk, 1977) that is composed of twoteaching strategies: assessing and evaluating. The script begins with knowninformation or assessment questions ("What day is it today?" or "What sound doyou hear first?") used by teachers to elicit correct answers from children inorder to assess their knowledge. Children's responses are followed by anevaluation from the teacher and, usually, a new question. This pattern iscalled the initiation-response-evaluation (IRE) sequence (Mehan, 1979).

Though Mrs. Martin's lessons were driven by her assessing and evaluating,she also used other strategies. When children were unable to answer herquestions, she used prompting to help them answer successfully. Often thismeant giving children added information until they were able to arrive at theright answer. At other times, she made a point of asking another for help,scanning the group for volunteers. When she was unclear about what they hadsaid, she tried requesting clarification. She often used repetition of thechild's response as an evaluation, repeating a correct response and repeatingit as a question if it were not.

Occasionally, when Mrs. Martin was trying to expand the children'sabilities to express themselves and was less concerned about right answers,she asked more open-ended questions, scaffolding the children's responses andhelping them create more complek answers. When introducing new COncept§,Mes.Martin was adept at demonstrating them with concrete materials andexperiences. At other times, she might share information, informing the

4

Sibling Teaching 4

children about what they needed to know. Throughout the day, Mrs. Martin spentmuch time regulating the children's behavior and focusing them on tasks. Shefrequently called them to attention and reminded them of how to behave,sometimes sounding as they were engaged in joint activity as peers. Thus, shemight say, "Are we ready?" and "Let's do one we know."

All of these strategies except scaffolding were ones in which Mrs. Martintook responsibility for initiating and guiding learning. Her use of thesestrategies was consistent with her beliefs about what the children neededbecause of both their culture and their experiences. At the same time Mrs.Martin felt ambivalent about practices that were so teacher-centered.

Observations and tapings in Nelson and Monica's homes revealed that theirparents prepared them to succeed in school by teaching them school-relatedknowledge and skills such as writing numbers and letters. They also taughtthem to respect their teachers. Consistent with these goals, they used therecitation script in lessons with their children. Though these lessons wereinfrequent, the children participated actively, asking questions andinitiating topics, in contrast to their school behavior. These findingssuggested that the children's "passivity" in school could be explained notonly by differing understandings of parent and teacher roles but also bysocialization practices that emphasize respect for adults and by Mrs. Martin'steacher-centered approach (Volk, 1997).

While observing the parent-child lessons in the homes, I realized thatolder siblings together with some members of the children's extended familiesplayed with Nelson and Monica frequently and that school content was oftenintroduced into these interactions. Consequently, after M6nica's family movedto Puerto Rico, I planned to learn more about the teaching strategies used byNelson's siblings and other family members.

As will be described in this article, I found that a group composed ofNelson's 7, 17, and 19 year old brothers, his 14 year old sister, plus his 18year old sister-in-law, and 21 year old aunt and uncle engaged with Nelson,individually and together, in frequent teaching interactions. They oftencoordinated their teaching, as Yvette, the sister, and Zulma, the sister-in-law, did in the opening excerpt. They appeared to function in the service ofshared family goals. Moreover, their teaching supported and complemented theparents' formal lessons.

For these reasons, and with a rationale grounded in the cross-culturalliterature to be described below, I decided to refer to these family membersas a sibling group or, more simply, just older siblings. Together, theyappeared to play an important role in Nelson's education. By syncretizingstyles of teaching characteristic of the parents and the teacher, by drawingon teaching styles from their own schooling and their culture and religiouslearning, the older siblings functioned together as cultural and linguisticmediators for Nelson, helpihg him learn to Teailfin many contexts.

Theoretical Framework

Neo-Vygotskians (Moll, 1990; Rogoff, 1990; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988) arguethat children's development and learning are embedded in a socioculturalprocess. Children experience culturally appropriate patterns of thinking andcommunicating in interactions with more competent-members-6f-theircultuM-b-e-they adults, siblings, or peers (Rogoff, 1990). As children participate in theinteractions, they appropriate these patterns, acquiring the means to becompetent members of their cultures themselves.

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Sibling Teaching 5

In Vygotsky's terms, these interactions occur in a zone of proximaldevelopment (zpd), a range of emerging behaviors bounded at one end by whatthe child can do alone, independent performance, and at the other by what thechild can do with help, assisted performance. Within the zpd, the expertscaffolds the novice's learning, providing assistance that is sensitive to thenovice's needs while he/she actively participates (Bodrova & Leong, 1996).

Arguing that Vygotsky emphasized only academic and formal learning in hisdiscussion of the zpd, Rogoff (1990) extends the concept to include allinteractions with children that foster their development in culturally-relevant ways. She uses the term guided participation to describe the process,including both guidance by the expert and participation by the novice withinthe ever-evolving framework of each culture. Guided participation focuses onsystems of relationships, not just isolated dyads, in relation to the localgoals of development, that is, to what the community values.

Rogoff and her colleagues (Rogoff, Mistry, Goncu, & Mosier, 1993) studiedguided participation in parent-toddler interactions in urban, middle classcommunities in Salt Lake City and in Turkey and in two rural communities, onea Guatemalan Mayan town and the other a tribal village in India. They foundboth universals and variations in the interactions between children and theirparents. A central cultural difference was related to the degree to whichchildren were integrated into adult social and economic activities and theorientation to schooling. In urban, middle class homes in the U.S. and, tosome extent, in Turkey (where children tend to be segregated from adultactivities and adults organize activities to prepare children for school),Rogoff et al. found a pattern of interaction in which parents tookresponsibility for the direct instruction of what they identified as importantinformation and skills. Parents interacted with children as peers, though theydirected the activity and provided motivation for engagement. Interactionswere dominated by verbal communication and were dyadic, with parents andchildren attending to each other and ignoring others.

In Guatemala and India (where children tend to be integrated into adultactivities and there is, therefore, less emphasis on separate learningactivities for children) a different pattern emerged. Children learnedimportant information and skills through their regular participation in adultactivities, often as careful observers. Interactions with parents were usuallyembedded in other activities with multiple participants; parents and childrenattended to each other and to these other people and activities. Nonverbalcommunication played a key role. Children themselves were responsible forlearning while parents, siblings, and others provided sensitive assistance.

Rogoff et al. (1993) note that these patterns are not mutually exclusive.For example, the Turkish families, who were making a transition from rural tourban settings, displayed aspects of both patterns. Purposeful borrowing isalso possible, with "multidirectional enhancement" (p.158) the result. Forexample, families in which children learn through participation andobservation can learn how to provide the more verbal and dyadic instructionfound in many classrooms. Conversely, teachers more comfortable with a verbalapproach can integrate activities in which children learn through observation.

In this paper I use the concept of guided participation as well asprevious research about teacher interactions in school and about siblinginteractions at home in-the analysis-ofsibling teaching of schoolrelatedknowledge and skills. The research on siblings is discussed below.

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Sibling Teaching 6

A Cross-Cultural Look at Siblings

Most of the research on children's socialization is concerned with themother-child dyad (Watson-Gegeo & Gegeo, 1989; Weisner & Gallimore, 1977).Nonetheless, much cross-cultural research shows that older siblings often playan important role in the care and education of young children (Cicirelli,1995; Weisner, 1989; Weisner & Gallimore, 1977). Weisner and Gallimore, intheir landmark investigation of sibling caretaking across cultures (1977),assert that "nonparental caretaking is either the norm or a significant formof caretaking in most societies" (p. 169). In some, sibling caretaking tendsto be voluntary and siblings receive little training in what to do. In others,sibling caretaking is obligatory, with older siblings receiving socializationin how to care for younger siblings (Cicirelli, 1995). Such obligations areusually maintained even as siblings grow older.

Older siblings are often described as "cultural and linguistic brokers"(Watson-Gegeo & Gegeo, 1989, p. 70) for younger siblings, acting as caretakerswith parents, not substituting for them (Bryant & Litman, 1987). These moreexpert members of a culture co-construct knowledge along with the novices,often interacting with distinctive styles (Farver, 1993; Weisner, 1989).

Older siblings accomplish a variety of tasks vis-a-vis younger ones. Inmany cultures, they assist parents in caregiving (Weisner & Gallimore, 1977).In others, they participate in the affective, social, or cognitive developmentof younger siblings, even though they may not have responsibility for care(Cicirelli, 1995). As younger children reach middle childhood, homework isoften the subject of their joint activity (Bryant & Litman, 1987).

Critically, the research suggests that the definition of "sibling" mayvary between cultures (Cicirelli, 1995; Zukow, 1989). In industrializedsocieties, siblings tend to be defined on only a biological basis while in

many non-industrialized societies, people use different criteria to identifysiblings. Brothers and sisters plus cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents,and non-biological relations may be included in the sibling group.

While the literature argues against generalizations (Weisner, 1989), someconclusions can be drawn. Research on Latino families (Farver, 1993; Sanchez-Ayendez, 1988; Valdes, 1996) indicates that sibling caretaking and teachingare often a valued and obligatory aspect of family life. Raising children isseen as a collaborative endeavor within the context of a unified extendedfamily that includes biological and non-biological relatives.

This research in conjunction with observations and interviews with theMaldonados provide a rationale for considering the non-parent group thatworked with Nelson at home as older siblings. Overall patterns in theirteaching are described here. Differences in teaching styles within this grouprelated to age and sex (Dunn, 1992) will be investigated in future work.

Methodology

For the data collection and analysis, ethnographic techniques used in thestudy of cultural goals and practices were combined with ethnomethodologicaltechniques used in the study of discourse patterns in individual interactions(Gregory, 1993). By describing participants and the tasks they accomplished inrelation to their immediate 'motivesand-cultural-values-, the'analysis linkedculture at the broadest level with the level of interpersonal interactionswithout stereotyping individual behavior or fragmenting the picture of culturethat emerged (Weisner, Gallimore, & Jordan, 1993).

7

Sibling Teaching 7

The data collection was conducted primarily during one school year.Kindergartners were selected since they were experiencing the transition fromlearning at home to school. Nelson and Monica were selected because they hadtypical language and social development. Mrs. Martin facilitated contact withtheir families, calling first and accompanying me on a home visit when Iexplained the study and obtained consent. We were served food, we chattedinformally, and discussed educational concerns of the families.

For the broader study (Volk, 1997), I observed in the school and homesthroughout the fall. I continued observing between January and April, alsoconducting audiotapings of the children and their speech partners. I taped thethree-hour kindergarten session seven times and conducted tapings of betweenone and three hours in each home six times. Total observation time in thehomes was about 40 hours. I conducted semi-structured interviews with theteacher and parents and held many conversations with them.

In the classroom, I sat on the side taking notes while Monica, Nelson,and the teacher wore lapel mikes attached to cassette tape recorders hooked ona belt or in the pocket of a vest. A large tape recorder was used for wholegroup activities. When I was not taping or observing, I helped out in theclassroom, functioning as Mrs. Martin's assistant.

In the homes, the target children wore the cassette recorders and I oftenleft the large tape recorder on the kitchen table or the floor. I explainedthat I wanted to observe what would happen if I were not there and familymembers often appeared to be ignoring me as I sat to the side or in anotherroom. At times, the mothers served me food and I often chatted with familymembers. Occasionally, Monica and Nelson asked me to read a book or play agame. I usually interacted and then resumed my role as observer.

As a former early childhood teacher, I fit easily into the classroom. Ihad to work harder to bridge the differences between me and the parents. I

know Spanish well enough to communicate socially, to observe, and interview.Though Anglo, I have had years of experience working with Latino families, inthis country and in Latin America, and know how to interact in ways thataccommodate to the families' styles. They referred*to me as "la maestra" ("theteacher"), a person to be respected in Latino culture.

It could be argued that the family members engaged in the teaching Iobserved because I was there with my tape recorder. While it is possible thatmy presence elicited more frequent teaching than was typical, it was clearfrom the interviews and observations that the parents and older siblings knewhow to teach the younger ones and did so when I was not there.

Two years after these observations, I returned to Nelson's home to learnmore about sibling interactions. I interviewed Sefiora (Sra.) Maldonado andother family members and conducted ten hours of taping. I asked about howsiblings had helped Nelson when had been in kindergarten and how they helpedhim now. I confirmed patterns that I had observed previously when my focus wason parent-child interactions.

Recordings were transcribed and translated by a native Spanish speakerwho is Puerto Rican and fluent in English. Working with the transcripts andfield notes, I first identified teaching interactions involving school-relatedcontent using the kindergarten curriculum supplemented by statements by theteacher, the parents, and siblings. The use of the recitation script for someof these interactions facilitated -their-identificatiomMoving between data-on' ----siblings, on parents, and on the teacher, I identified and categorized all theadditional teaching strategies in the data. Then, using Rogoff's work (Rogoff

Sibling Teaching 8

et al., 1993) and that of Gregory (1993) as a guide, I looked within thestrategies to analyze the collaborative interactions of participants andlooked beyond the strategies to understand the activities in which they wereembedded. I analyzed who was involved, what they were doing, and their motivesand cultural values. Patterns in sibling teaching interactions were comparedwith teaching patterns of the parents and teacher as well as those identifiedin previous research.

Contexts for Teaching

The CommunityThe study took place in a large city in a midwestern state that has had a

thriving Puerto Rican community since the late 1940s. In 1990, there were22,330 Latinos living in the city, representing 4.4% of the population. About79% were Puerto Rican. Of those Latinos 18 years and older, only 24.08% werehigh school graduates. That same year, there were 4300 Latino children in thecity's schools, representing 6% of all the students. Though 40% of the Latinopopulation lived below the poverty level, 73% of the Latino children in theschools lived in families below the poverty level. In contrast, 30.3% ofLatinos nationally lived below the poverty level in 1990 and about 30%graduated from high school (de Acosta, 1993; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990).Participants

Nelson, 5.9 years old in September, was small for his age and hadstraight dark hair and olive skin. His two upper front teeth had been missingfor several years, knocked out in an accident playing. At home Nelson wastalkative and self-assured. In school he was more quiet, answering questionsdecisively and talking more with peers than in teacher-led, group activities.

Like all the children in his bilingual kindergarten, Nelson came from afamily designated as low income and he was eligible for the school's freelunch program. In January, when the taping began, he was Spanish dominant, anemergent bilingual who used Spanish more competently than English.

Nelson's family had come to the city less than a year before the studyafter living in New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico. His father worked ina factory; his mother was a homemaker. The parents had attended school inPuerto Rico through the tenth grade when they dropped out to get married.

In addition to Nelson and his parents, the family living at home includedRobert, 7 years old, Yvette, 14, and Luis, who was 17. Nelson's 19 year oldbrother, Manuel, and his wife, Zulma, who was 18, lived nearby as did hisuncle, Joey, and his wife, Nati, both in their early 20s. This sibling groupinteracted with each other almost every day, usually at the Maldonado's home,sometimes at their homes. Their obligation to participate in each other's careand education was articulated by Yvette who explained that the children hadalways helped each other and that she helped Nelson just as Luis and Manuel-and now Zulma, Joey, and Nati--continued to help her.Tasks

The tapings were conducted on weekday afternoons and on Saturdays. Duringthese times, many family members congregated in the small home. There wereoften simultaneous activities and conversations, with participants continuallymoving in and out of the talk and interactions. Family members who livedelsewhere went home and-theft-called to-talk-some more:

Nelson and Robert played alone or together with action figures, studiedtheir baseball cards, looked at books, watched television, threw a football,

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Sibling Teaching 9

worked on a jigsaw puzzle with Luis, and argued about Chinese checkers.Nelson, Yvette, and Robert played Connect Four, a checkers-type game. Thefamily often sat around the kitchen table talking and eating; the childrenmight write, draw, or do homework. Both parents checked to make sure thechildren did their homework and, during one observation, Sr. Maldonado helpedRobert with his. The siblings helped each other with homework too and onceLuis did Yvette's. During another observation, Sra. Maldonado read Nelson astory in Spanish and then helped him read the words in a Spanish primer.Several times the family studied the Bible together. Sra. Maldonado or anolder sibling lead their study, calling on others to read or explain the text.

Nelson's parents, like Latino parents and those from other cultures aswell (Gallimore and Goldenberg, 1993; Rogoff, 1990), identified the directinstruction of academic content by an adult as "teaching" and distinguishedthis from "play." Though the Maldonados did occasionally play board games withtheir children, in general, they did not play with them, believing thatchildren should play alone or with other children.

Guided Participation: Teaching Strategies andUnderlying Motives and Values

Immediate motives and cultural valuesLike other poor Latino parents (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Soto, 1997;

Valdes, 1996; Vasquez, Pease-Alvarez, & Shannon, 1994), Nelson's parentsexplained that they understood the importance of education in their children'slives. Like some, they asserted that parents were responsible for teaching thebasics and proudly described how they had taught Nelson to write his name andidentify colors, numbers, and letters. They said they expected their childrento do well because they had provided this academic preparation and had taughttheir children to respect their teachers. In fact, Nelson did do well. Infirst grade, he received an award as the best student in his class.

During one of the interviews, I asked Nelson's mother to describe themost important thing she and her husband did to help their children in school.Her answer highlighted the family's role instead of teaching techniques.

Yo encuentro que lo mas importante es el que la familia este unida y semuestre amor. Y alli es donde entonces el nifio, pues, puede aprenderaids. Porque aveces .de que le vale a uno ensefiarle a uno una unamatematica o esefiarle a escribir si en la familia no esti unida ni hayamor? Ahora cuando toda la familia trabaja junto con todos los hijos yoencuentro que eso ayuda Ries a los nifios. [I find that the most importantthing is that the family is together and shows each other love: Andthere is where then the child, well, can learn most. Because sometimeswhat good does it do to teach someone math or teach them to write if thefamily is not together and there isn't love? Now when the whole familyworks together with all the children I find that helps the childrenmost.]

Sra. Maldonado explained that the family was close because, as Jehovah'sWitnesses, they studied the Bible together almost daily and all played a rolein preparing each other to do well In 'school and in life': The'oldertoo spoke about the closeness of their family and how they helped each other,about--in Manuel's words--"the teaching and the enjoyment and being together".

i0

Sibling Teaching 10

This perspective reflects the concept of bien educado, a valued personalcharacteristic in Latino culture. While the term literally means "welleducated", it has both academic and moral aspects. Schooling by itself is notenough; a person who is bien educado is well-brought-up and knows how to actrespectfully and correctly with others (Reese, Balzano, Gallimore, &Goldenberg, 1995; Valdes, 1996).

Less lofty motives were also apparent when the oldersiblings helpedNelson. When Luis worked on a puzzle with him and when Yvette played ConnectFour with him, they worked hard to teach him needed skills and informationwhile also trying to finish the puzzle or win the game. While Nelson was ofteneager to learn, it was apparent that he also wanted to put together a puzzlefaster than his brothers and beat Yvette.Sibling teaching strategies

The teaching strategies described below were identified in the siblinginteractions in Nelson's home. Figure 1 illustrates the occurrence of thesestrategies. For each interaction analyzed, the focus, such as completing apuzzle or looking at stickers, is listed along with the participants, thestrategies used, and the duration of the interaction. Each list of strategiesindicates only that the older siblings used these strategies during theinteraction. They might use each in one turn or over many; they might use astrategy once during an interaction or many times. In all cases, thestrategies were embedded in the ongoing stream of activity and talk withmultiple participants that occurred in Nelson's home.

Insert Figure 1 about here

The first group of strategies discussed below were used by the oldersiblings to direct Nelson's learning. They were not co-constructed by theolder siblings working along with Nelson.

1) Assessino/Evaluatinq. The siblings used the teacher-identifiedrecitation script to assess Nelson's knowledge of what they thought wasimportant information, in school and in their religion. The following exampleoccurred as family members sat around the kitchen table and several askedNelson about a recent kindergarten field trip to a farm. Nati, his 20 year oldaunt, first asked him an open-ended question, then a more specific assessmentquestion, checking his knowledge of animal sounds. When he responded, sheevaluated his response positively. Then Nelson, who was trying to draw a cow,asked for help. Others continued the assessment questions, asking about otheranimals. The use of this strategy by Nati and the others was identical to thatof Sra. Maldonado and of Mrs. Martin who used this strategy in her lessons.

Nati: LY que Inds vistes alld, Nelson? [And what else did you seethere, Nelson?]

Nelson: Ovejitas. [Lambs.]Nati: iComo hacian las ovejitas? Hazlo. [How did the lambs go? Do

it.]

Nelson: Baaa.Nati: Si. Si. Baaa. -[Yes. Yes.]

Sibling Teaching 11

2) Prompting. When Nelson did not know an answer, the siblings providedhelp with prompts or clues, usually by telling him parts of the word or phrasemaking up the correct answer to their questions. Mrs. Martin also used thisstrategy. In addition, she might string together a series of promptingquestions that were easier and easier for the children to answer. In thefollowing example, Nelson asked for help writing numbers. Yvette (age 14) andSra. Maldonado collaborated to help him sound out the syllables for"vente"/"twenty" just as Yvette and Zulma collaborated in the opening excerpt.

Yvette: Ven ve ven ven ven ven. [Twen twe twen twen twen twen.]Nelson: //Vente.// [Twenty.]Sra M: //Te te te te te.// [Ty ty ty ty ty.]Nelson: Vente. [Twenty.]Sra M: Mini° se escribe? [How do you write it?]Nelson: Un dos y un cero. [A two and a zero.]Sra M: Mjum. [Mhum.]

3) Informing. Sometimes the siblings just provided Nelson with theanswer to his question or their own without prompting him to answer. Thisstrategy was used in the article's opening excerpt. Nelson asked what lettercame next and Yvette told him. Mrs. Martin also tended to use informinginstead of prompting when prompting did not lead a child to the correctanswer. Sometimes she began lessons or summarized them by informing childrenof the underlying concept or information.

4) Teasing. The siblings used teasing occasionally as a way of assessingNelson's knowledge by urging him to demonstrate what the sibling knew he knew.This strategy was also used by his parents, but never by his teacher. In theexample below, Nelson responded, but on his own terms.

Zulma: El no sabe cual es mi direcciOn....Nelson no sabe cual es ladirecciOn de el, Iverdad Nelson? [He doesn't know my address....Nelson doesn't know his address, right Nelson?]

Nelson: Yo la se. [I know it.]

51 Confirming. While the siblings did use the third turn of therecitation script for evaluation with a "very good" or "yes,", they were morelikely to use variations on this script, often just repeating or confirmingNelson's response. In the example below, Yvette repeated Nelson's turn inorder to confirm it. In the example opening the article, Zulma (age 18)confirmed that Nelson had written an "A" properly with "Mhum" and theneliminated the third turn in the IRE sequence when he read his word correctly.

Yvette: Yo tengo cuatro tambien. Coge una roja. 4Cuintas rojas tdtienes? [I have four too. Take a red one. How many reds doyou have?]

Nelson: Uno dos tres cuatro. [One two three four.]Yvette: Uno dos tres cuatro. Coge una roja. [One two three four.

Take a red one.]

The next group of strategies.were-co,,conStructed by Nelson-and-his"-siblings. That is, Nelson and his siblings both played active roles as theydeveloped the strategy together. They both asked questions, initiated topics,and appeared to assume responsibility for Nelson's learning.

Sibling Teaching 12

6) Scaffolding. The older siblings sometimes provided scaffolding forNelson's thinking, giving him assistance that made it possible for him toperform at higher levels. For example, after a game of Connect Four, Yvetteasked Nelson an assessment question, "How many reds do you have?", as ifannouncing her role as teacher in a learning interaction. They then countedthe game pieces until they got to nine, counting, then adding one more andcounting again. At that point, Nelson seemed to get stuck. In the examplebelow, Yvette told Nelson the next number and he repeated "Nine and ten." Withher final "Then?", Yvette urged him to add one more to ten by himself,providing concrete assistance by giving them each one more piece. Thisscaffolding made it possible for Nelson to count to eleven, performing at alevel beyond that of his independent functioning. Instead of evaluating hisresponse, Yvette confirmed it in a statement about how many pieces he had.

Yvette: auantas rojas td tienes? [How many reds do you have ?]Nelson: Uno dos tres cuatro cinco seas siete ocho nueve. [One two

three four five six seven eight nine.]Yvette: Diez. Yo cojo //diez.// [Ten. I take ten.]Nelson: //Nueve// y diez. [Nine and ten.]Yvette: .Pues? [Then?]Nelson: (to self) Nueve y diez. [Nine and ten.]Yvette: Una para ti y una para mi. [One for you and one for me.]Nelson: Ok. Nueve diez once. [Ok. Nine ten eleven.]Yvette: Y yo ten-t0 tienes //once rojas y yo once negras.//[And I ha-

you have eleven reds and I have eleven blacks.]

Mrs. Martin also used scaffolding. She did so primarily when she wastrying to expand the children's abilities to express themselves wih language,not when she was trying to teach them information.

7) Illustrating. As in the example above, abstract concepts wereillustrated by Nelson and the siblings using the materials at hand. Thus, asYvette and Nelson played with the red and black game pieces, Yvette taughtNelson about counting and colors. In other instances, Nelson initiated suchactivity, asking the older sibling to participate. Mrs. Martin used a similiarstrategy, providing concrete demonstrations of concepts she was teaching.

8) Directing. Instead of asking or prompting, the siblings sometimesdirected Nelson to take action and Nelson often directed them. In the countinginteraction described above, Yvette repeats several times, "Take a red one" asshe directs Nelson's behavior. Later Nelson directs her.

Nelson: ...Ahora mira. Mira ahora. Ahora. No no no pongas eso alli.Ahora vienes. Pon estas tres alli. Pon estas tres. Saca esa.Pon eses tres negras alli. Ya. [Now look. Look now. Now. No nodon't put that there. Now come. Put these three there. Putthese three. Take that one out. Put these three black onesthere. Already.]

Yvette: LAqui encima? [Here on top?]Nelson: Alli encima. [There on top.]

The siblings' directing was similarito-Mrs-.-Martin's regulating and-focusing. Notably, Mrs. Martin often combined regulating with assessing, aswhen she asked, "Who can raise their hand and tell me the name of the month?"

13

Sibling Teaching 13

9) Repetition /Overlapping speech. Repetition and overlapping speech wereused by Nelson and his siblings together. The siblings' repetition sometimesserved as confirmation of what Nelson had said as when Yvette, below, repeatsNelson's counting. At other times, the mutual repetition serves as ascaffolding for Nelson to perform beyond his level of independent performance.Here, Yvette and Nelson continually repeated each other's counting and countedsimultaneously, co-constructing the sequence of numbers.

Yvette: iCuantas negras t6 tienes? [How many blacks do you have?]Nelson: Uno dos tres cuatro. [One two three four.]Yvette: Yo tengo cuatro tambien. Coge una roja. ICuantas rojas t6

tienes? [I have four too. Take a red one. How many reds do youhave?]

Nelson: Uno dos tres cuatro. [One two three four.]Yvette: Uno dos tres cuatro. Coge una roja. Uno dos tres //cuatro//

cinco. [One two three four. Take a red one. One two three fourfive.]

Nelson: (to self) //Cuatro.// [Four.]Yvette: Cinco. [Five.]Nelson: (to self) Cinco. [Five.]

In the next example, Nelson, Robert (age 7), and Luis (age 17) worked ona jigsaw puzzle, co-constructing Nelson's learning. The brothers scaffoldedNelson's thinking by suggesting strategies for assembling the puzzle. Nelson'sself-repetition of their comments seemed to be private speech used to guidehis own thinking.

Luis: Todas las azules. Busca el cielo el cielo el cielo el cielo elcielo. Primero los azules. [All the blue ones. Look for thesky the sky the sky the sky the sky. First the blue ones.]

Nelson: This one.Luis: Las azules. [The blue ones.]Nelson: This one.Luis: Pues sacalas aqui. [Then get them out of here.]Nelson: (to self) Azules....Mira azul. Azul. [Blue ones....Look blue.

Blue.]Luis: Mjum. [Mhum.]Nelson: (to self) Azul. [Blue.]Luis: Pues b6scalas y p6nlas alli [Then look for them and put them

there.]

In contrast to the siblings' use of this strategy, Mrs. Martin usedrepetition only to confirm the children's responses to her questions. Thechildren repeated after her only when instructed to do so.

10) Requesting clarification. At times, the siblings or Nelson madeefforts to clarify each other's statements. The example below took place asthe family sat around the table. Nelson's mother and Zulma made plans for thenext day at the same time. Nelson sought clarification of Yvette's assistance.This strategy was used only occasionally by the teacher when she did notunderstand a child's response:- It was almost never used by the'-children.

Yvette: Seis y un siete. [Six and a seven.]Nelson: ZAsi es? [Like this ?]

14

Sibling Teaching 14

Sra. M: .lit vas a predicar viernes Zulma? [Are you going to preachFriday Zulma?]

Nelson: ZAh? [Huh?]Yvette: //Asi.// [Like this.]Zulma: //Tengo que predicar.// [I have to preach.]Nelson: //No. ZAsi?// [No. Like this?]Sra M: //i.Desde que hora?// [At what time?]Yvette: //No al reves. Asi.// [No the other way. Like this.]Zulma: //Voy a tratar de empezar// temprano. [I'm going to try to

start early.]Sra M: .Con //quiet) vas?// [Who are you going with?]Zulma: //No tengo (unclear).// [I have no ( ).]Sr M: (to Nelson) //Aqui no. Aqui.// [Not here. Here.]Sra M: //Pero con// que este. Uti vas en to carro o no? .No? [But

with that this. Are you going in your car or not? No?]Zulma: No creo. [I don't think so.]Yvette: Pero hazlo aci. [But do it here.]Nelson: //(unclear)//Zulma: //(unclear)//Yvette: Dejalo. Esti bien. [Leave it. It's fine.]

11) Negotiating. Nelson and his siblings frequently negotiated thecorrect answers to questions as well as what they were going to do together.The following excerpt comes from a long sequence that Nelson initiated as hetried to write numbers. His mother intervened with a known informationquestion, "And what comes now after nineteen?" Nelson ignored her as he wrotethe number 19. Eventually, the dispute between Nelson and Yvette about how towrite a 9 was settled by Sra. Maldonado.

Yvette: Ah-ah. Del otro lado. La bolita primero y despues el palito.[Uh-uh. On the other side. The little ball first and then thelittle stick.]

Nelson: .De este way? [This way?]Yvette: Del otro. [The other.]Nelson: .Ah? [Huh?]Yvette: A de ese mismo lado. Haz la bolita. Alli, .viste ? / /Va la

bolita primero y el palito.// [On that same side. Make thelittle ball. There, see? The little ball goes first and thelittle stick.]

Nelson: //Como la P.// Como la P. [Like the P. Like the P.]Yvette: No la P es al reves. [No the P is reversed.]Nelson: Zulma me dijo que asi. asi se hace el nueve? [Zulma told me

like this. Do you make a nine like this?]Yvette: No.

Nelson: .Ah? Si. [Huh? Yes.]Yvette: No.

Nelson: Si. [Yes.]Yvette: Mami, Zcomo se hace el nueve? Miralo. .Verdad que se hace la

bolita primero y despues el palito? [Mommy, how do you make anine? Look at it. Right You do the -little ball first 'and thenthe little stick?]

15

Sibling Teaching 15

As shown in Figure 2, about half of the strategies used by the siblingswere ones in which they directed the learning interaction and appeared toassume responsibility for the teaching that occurred. In the other half, thesiblings worked with Nelson, jointly constructing the teaching and learning.In contrast, all but one of Mrs. Martin's strategies were ones in which shewas solely in charge of the learning interaction.

Insert Figure 2 about here

Discussion

In this section, I use the concept of guided participation to analyzeand compare these teaching strategies. When considering the analysis, it isimportant to remember that the data presented do not include all of Nelson'sinteractions. At home, there were interactions with siblings that did notinvolve school content, interactions with parents, and times when Nelsonplayed alone. In school, he play and worked with peers and alone.

Rogoff (1990) argues that "both guidance and participation in culturallyvalued activities are essential to children's apprenticeship in thinking" (p.8). In the cultures studied, she and her colleagues (Rogoff et al., 1993)found two different but equally valid patterns of guided participation: one inwhich the adult is responsible for teaching and one in which the child isresponsible for learning and the adult provides assistance. The analysis ofthe strategies used by Nelson's teacher and by his siblings suggests thatguided participation in the kindergarten most often resembled the formerpattern while guided participation at home was a blend of both.

In scbool. Mrs. Martin was clearly responsible for the teaching thatoccurred in the classroom and she emphasized verbal participation. She oftenused the recitation script along with the third turn of the IRE sequence toassess and evaluate the children's knowledge. She was usually the source ofthe knowledge and correct Answers were not negotiable. She informed thechildren of important information and organized active demonstrations forthem. She used strategies for prompting children when they were unable toanswer. These strategies were individually constructed in that Mrs. Martin didthe work of simplifying the question until the child answered correctly.

Collaborative strategies such as scaffolding were used primarily in lessfrequent open-ended discussions. Repetition was not collaborative; Mrs. Martinrepeated the children's turns to confirm their accuracy and the children onlyrepeated hers aloud when instructed to do so. Collaboration among the childrenwas carefully regulated during lessons. Mrs. Martin did not play with thechildren, though she often spoke as if she were engaged with them as a peer.Lessons had a single focus; teacher and children were supposed to attend toeach other and to the task that the teacher had identified.

At home. Guided participation in Nelson's poor, urban family was a blendof both patterns. At times, Nelson and his siblings worked collaboratively; atother times, one or the other took responsibility for the teaching andlearning. Nelson often played a role in determining when, how, and what helearned, sharing responsibility with his siblings for initiating toOlcs andfor asking and answering questions. On occasion, the siblings providedassistance that was sensitive to Nelson's learning needs and level ofdevelopment, scaffolding his learning, not just prompting him to say the right

16

Sibling Teaching 16

answer and then evaluating it. Answers were negotiated and were not alwayspossessed by the older siblings.

Most often these interactions, like the ones in school, were verbal.However, in contrast to school interactions, the ones at home were rarelydyadic with a single focus. Teaching and learning were embedded in otheractivitles,-sometimes involving play among the siblings, sometimes involvingconversations among family members. This embeddedness meant that activitiesoften had multiple foci with many participants speaking in overlapping turns.Participants usually attended to several activities at once.

The siblings also used strategies identified with teachers and describedby Rogoff et al. (1993) in urban, middle class families. In these instances,the siblings took responsibility for teaching and identifying what needed tobe taught, using the recitation script complete with assessment questions,prompts, and confirmations of Nelson's responses. They provided explicitverbal explanations in dyadic interactions with single foci.

Notably, the siblings sometimes varied these typical teacher strategies.The teaching role was shared by two of them or shared with a parent, theevaluation of Nelson's responses was absent, and scaffolding was used moreoften than prompting. Unlike the teacher, the siblings also used teasing topush Nelson to display his knowledge just as they used assessment questions.

Research insights. The analysis of these findings suggests four inter-related insights relevant to the research on teaching and learning infamilies. First, the teaching interactions between Nelson and his siblingsblended several different teaching approaches, combining strategies from bothpatterns of guided participation. Rather than embodying a single,"traditional" style, the interactions constructed by Nelson and his oldersiblings represented a comingling of resources from the family's experiences.

The teacher-identified style drew on their experiences in school, athome with their parents and, it is likely, in the Kingdom Hall. The morecollaborative, embedded style may be associated with the family's Puerto Ricanbackground. McCollum (1989), comparing language use styles in third gradeclasses in Puerto Rico and on the mainland, describes lessons on the islandthat had a more reciprocal and collaborative structure. The teacher respondedto children's turns rather than evaluating them as the teacher on the mainlanddid. Studies of Mexican American families (Reese, Gallimore, & Goldenberg,1996; Valdes, 1996; Vasquez, Pease-Alvarez, & Shannon, 1994) and Puerto Ricanones (Hidalgo, 1994; Soto, 1997) describe a similar emphasis on educationwithin the context of collaborative, family-focused interactions.

Teasing is another strategy that may draw on the family's culturalroots. It has been described (Eisenberg, 1982) as a socialization strategyused by Mexican American parents to encourage their children to behave inappropriate ways. Though teasing is not mentioned in- descriptions of PuertoRican families, it is possible that it is a strategy shared by Latino familiesof different origins. More research on the styles and qualities ofinteractions in a variety of Hispanic families is needed, particularly forteachers struggling to establish good relationships with homes.

Second, syncretism has been identified as an important phenomenon inother cross-cultural settings. Duranti and Ochs (1996), in a study of literacyin the homes of Samoans living in the U.S., define syncretic literacy as "anintermingling or merging of culturally diverse traditions [that] informs andorganizes literacy activities" (p. 2). They extend the term beyond its usualreference to language to "include hybrid cultural constructions of speech actsand speech activities" (p. 2).

17

Sibling Teaching 17

By teaching syncretically, the siblings appeared to function as culturaland linguistic mediators for Nelson. They provided a bridge for him betweendifferent ways of teaching and learning associated with home, schools inPuerto Rico and the mainland, and the family's religion. As a result, Nelsonexperienced both the content and the strategies valued in school within afamiliar home context. This preparation for school occurred without-theconstant evaluation that he experienced in the classroom and in interactionsin which he played an active role.

A similar syncretism is described in Gregory's study (1997) ofBangladeshi-origin families living in London. Older siblings helped youngerones learn to read by using reading strategies drawn from the children'sQur'anic classes in a community school and gradually integrating thestrategies used by British teachers with which the children were lessfamiliar. In contrast to the teachers, they eliminated evaluation. Gregoryargues that the siblings' syncretic approach and sensitive assistance weresimilar to the assistance provided by parents in Western cultures to youngchildren learning their first language.

Such illustrations of syncretism suggest that more work is needed todescribe and analyze the richness of perspectives and practices in variedcultural contexts as well as the role of older siblings. in helping youngerones make cross-cultural transitions.

Third, the older siblings played out their role as mediators for Nelsonwithin a family system of socialization, not as substitutes for parents.Parents and older siblings worked together to prepare Nelson for school and tohelp him develop within the culture of his home. Their joint activities formeda coordinated system of caretaking and teaching as described in the literature(Bryant & Litman, 1987; Watson-Gegeo & Gegeo, 1989; Weisner, 1989).

The broader study of parent-child interactions (Volk, 1997), showed thatNelson's parents engaged in more formal teaching than did his siblings. Theywere more likely to use the recitation script and such strategies asinforming, assessing, and prompting. The parents also provided many informallearning experiences though they did not play with Nelson. Complementing theseactivities, the siblings provided a range of opportunities for learning thatwere embedded in play and other meaningful interactions. The family's dualemphasis on preparation for school and family togetherness provided theunderpinnings for this coordinated system.

More research is needed to better understand the ways in which siblingscomplement the socializing work of parents as Nelson's siblings did. Possibledifferences and similarities between the roles and styles of younger and oldersiblings, of biological siblings and other members of extended families, andof male and female siblings need to be investigated.

Fourth, the literature on Latino families (Hidalgo, 1994; Reese,Gallimore, & Goldenberg, 1996; Soto, 1997; Valdes, 1996; Vasquez, Pease-Alvarez, & Shannon, 1994) describes characteristic practices and valuessimilar to those of the Maldonados. The emphasis on sibling caretaking andteaching and on the importance of education and of being bien educado areshared by both Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans. But the literature alsosuggests that a critical distinction between families within both groups isrelated to the question of who is responsible for teaching academic content toyoung children. Some parents'believe their job-is to prepare their children,not teach them, and, as a consequence, they rarely or never use typicalteacher strategies. Other parents, like the Maldonados, use these strategies

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Sibling Teaching 18

mixed with more collaborative ones that are drawn from their culturalheritage. Whether this difference between families is related to migrationhistory and degree of familiarity with the U.S. educational system, as theliterature suggests; whether there are differences between Mexican Americanand Puerto Rican families on this issue because of their countries' distincthistorical relationships to the United States;. whether the Maldonados' beliefsin evangelical Protestantism or their personal experiences are relevant; theseand other possibilities should be investigated in the future.

Implications for Early Childhood Teachers

When Nelson was in her class, Mrs. Martin was, in her own words, tryingto be "less authoritarian". In the years since that time, Mrs. Martin haschanged. I stayed in touch with her and was able to observe those changes andto talk to her about them.

A few of the changes developed as she understood the study's findings.Most grew from her own interest in learning more about teaching, herparticipation in master's level courses, her growing understanding ofdevelopmentally appropriate practices, and her increased expertise as a

teacher. The school's shift to an all-day kindergarten provided time for newways of teaching and learning. As Mrs. Martin changed, there were fewercontradictions between her beliefs and her practice.

The first change came in her use of the recitation script. Whilemaintaining her role as a strong teacher and her emphasis on teaching neededknowledge and skills, Mrs. Martin experimented with a more collaborative andresponsive style that offered children more assistance and less assessment andthat seemed more culturally relevant for herself and the children. Sheimproved her ability to elicit responses from children and to listen to them,especially when lessons focused on academic content not just personalexperiences. She began to use the third turn of the IRE sequence to askchildren to explain and reflect on their responses instead of using it forevaluation only. Children were seen as teachers for other children in wholegroup, small group, and on-to-one interactions. Though children had alwaysparticipated in activity centers in her classroom, the variety of learninginteractions increased. At any one time, there could be many simultaneouslearning interactions with multiple teachers and learners and multiple foci.

As her teaching blended a teacher-centered style with a morecollaborative one, Mrs. Martin saw higher levels of participation andcompetence among the children. This suggests that teachers need to evaluatechildren in the light of their own practice. It provides a thought-provokingcomplement to the findings of studies (Gallimore and Goldenberg 1993; Vasquezet al. 1994) that indicate that Latino children are in greater control of thetalk at home and display higher levels of language competence there.

Mrs. Martin's new, more syncretic, style reflects the syncretism foundin Nelson's home in the interactions with his siblings. Notably, researchsuggests that it may be more common to find parents blending approaches thanteachers. In a study of the perspectives of Black, White, and Latina low-income mothers on preparing their young children for school (Holloway,Rambaud, Fuller, & Eggers-Pierola, 1995), researchers found that the mothersblended approaches from-different resources -in their lives. Despite an-emphasis on didactic school preparation, their perspectives were more"inclusive" (p. 469) than those of some middle class parents and teachersdescribed in other research.

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Sibling Teaching 19

The second effort at change grew more directly from this study. Workingwith the researcher, Mrs. Martin began to develop a small proposal to getfunding from the school district to integrate siblings into her parentinvolvement efforts. While this plan was not implemented, the intent was tobuild on the kindergartners' experiences learning with their siblings at homeand the siblings' experiences and skill as teachers. We planned to invitesiblings (as well as extended family members and family friends) to meetingswith parents to introduce them to kindergarten. A series of sessions wouldprovide specific guidance in reading with younger siblings. These sessionswould build on known practices and teach new ones and would provide oldersiblings with opportunities to improve their own reading skills. Older andyounger siblings would practice together and would take books home to read.

Mrs. Martin could also apply the model of sibling teaching throughmulti-age groupings within her classroom. She might invite in older childrento read with her kindergartners or to help them practice needed skills duringgames or joint projects. As the older ones helped the younger ones, they wouldfurther their own learning in interactions that reflected familiar homeexperiences for many of them.

Such efforts suggest that early childhood teachers, particularly thoseof Latino children, could broaden their approach to parent involvement to oneof family involvement. This change would be based on two assumptions drawnfrom both the cross-cultural literature and this description of Nelson'sfamily. First, teachers need to recognize that families are resources forchildren, as much as the more commonly-identified resources of money andeducation. Second, teachers need to broaden their understanding of families,to understand how others define "the family," its roles and its members.

To build on these assumptions, teachers might begin by developingrelationships with families and giving them credit for all they do to supporttheir children's learning. Teachers might express appreciation for children'srespectful attitudes and demeanor as well as their knowledge and skills.Comments on report cards, in weekly newsletters, at school assemblies, ormeetings could highlight the work of families. Parents and siblings couldshare what they do with others at meetings, modeling how they help withhomework, for example. Activities in school to develop children's self-esteemcould focus on ways that children help others in their families and classroomcommunities in addition to their individual achievements.

In sum, insights into the teaching and learning that occurred betweenNelson and his older siblings provide many suggestions for ways that teacherscan change their practice. The Maldonado family's perspective that integratesfamily togetherness with preparation for school provides guidelines as well.Change that involves teachers, parents, and siblings in new ways in theteaching/learning process should be done in ways that maintain respect for allthose who teach. Achievement should be understood in the context of caringrelationships, not at their expense. As illustrated in this article, creatinga community of children and adults in the classroom and establishing close andrespectful bonds with families are not peripheral concerns for early childhoodteachers but are essential to many children's learning.

Endnotes

I. Pseudonyms have been used-for-all the participants-in this- -study.

2. While the majority of Puerto Ricans are Catholic, evangelical Protestantismhas become increasingly widespread in recent years among Puerto Ricans,specifically, and among Latinos as a group, in this country and in Latin America(Pinsky, M.I., 1997).

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Sibling Teaching 20

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Pinsky, M.I. (1997, March 2). Puerto Ricans seeking God outside of CatholicChurch. The Orlando Sentinel, p. Al.

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Figure 1

Teaching Strategies Used by Siblings during Teaching/Learning Interactions

interaction participants strategies duration interaction participants strategies duration

1) puzzle Nelson,Luis prompting 60 min. 2) Connect 4 Nelson,Yvette, assessing 23 min.

Robert informing Robert informing

confirming confirming

scaffolding scaffolding

illustrating illustrating

directing directing

repetition repetition/

requesting clar. overlapping speech

negotiating requesting clar.

negotiating

3) puzzle Nelson, informing 21 tin. 4) stickers Nelson,Yvette, informing 12 min.

Robert directing Robert confirming

requesting clar. directing

negotiating repetition

requesting clar.

5) coloring Nelson,Luis assessing 15 min. 6) Connect 4 Nelson, Nati, assessing 8 tin.

Robert,Sra 6 teasing Yvette,Robert, directing

Sr M negotiating Sra H

7) birthday Nelson,Yvette, assessing 5 min. 8) Connect 4 Nelson,Yvette, assessing 30 min.

Robert,Nati, informing Robert illustrating

Joey,Sra M teasing directing

repetition

requesting clar.

negotiating

9) baseball Nelson,Yvette, informing 7 min. 10) Chinese Nelson,Yvette, assessing 13 tin.

cards Robert illustrating checkers Robert informing

scaffolding

illustrating

directing

requesting clar.

negotiating

11) coloring Nelson,Robert informing 8 min. 12) talking Nelson,Zulma assessing/ 100 min.

illustrating Yvette,Hati, evaluating

repetition Sr & Sra M prompting

requesting clar. informing

teasing

confirming

directing

repetition

requesting clar.

negotiating

23

13) dot-to-dot Nelson,Yvette, informing 20 min. 14) numbers

Robert,Sra N repetition/

overlapping speech

negotiating

15) tictactoe Nelson,Yvette, illustrating 2 min.

Robert,Sra N directing

requesting clar.

negotiating

Nelson,Yvette,

Robert

informing 3 min.

illustrating

directing

repetition/

overlapping speech

negotiating

Figure 2

Comparison of Teaching Strategies of Sibling Teachers & School Teacher

TeachingStrategies

Sibling Teachers School Teacher

Teacher-onlystrategies

Jointstrategies

Assessing/EvaluatingPromptingInformingTeasingConfirming

ScaffoldingIllustratingDirectingRepetition/Overlapping speechRequesting clarificationNegotiating

Assessing/EvaluatingPromptingInformingRepetitionRequesting clarificationDemonstratingRegulating/FocusingAsking another for help

Scaffolding

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